thanksgiving

we had a great thanksgiving. we got to announce to our families the name we decided for baby G:

Norah Christy

chris & i also felt her kick for the first time, which was exciting! we spent some time in south georgia with chris' family. a few years ago, i started doing a craft/kitchen project with his cousin's children, and it has sort of become a tradition. this year we did gingerbread people. the girls said the large gingerbread cookie cutter was christopher, the medium one was me, and the tiny one was baby norah. then they made half their cookies with a cutout of norah within a larger gingerbread person's belly- "since that's where she is." so precious! here's a picture of the golden family with mema. we are very excited for kevin & andra (pictured far left) as they finalize their wedding plans for next april. i've always wanted a sister! we left the farm early to go to the georgia game on saturday. despite the outcome, we had a great time with friends in our final tailgate of the season. they surprised us with a shower! the cake says if i had a daughter...i'd dress her in white & gold, which is from the GT fight song. i've always heard the best way to get new tech fans is to breed them! here are some of the sweet things we received for norah. she will be ready for next football season!

holidays so far

it's been a while since our last post, so i'll catch you up on our holidays goings-on...we went to the farm in south georgia (chris' mom's side) for thanksgiving. we had a baked turkey and a fried turkey. christopher was in charged of the fried one, and it was delicious! i've already decided that in 30 years or so, whenever i'm responsible for taking over holiday meal preparation, i'm going to let him fry it up! it's so much faster and equally delicious. the next day while the boys were doing something with beef brisket (smoking, maybe?), i stayed inside with the girls and we made christmas mice- an idea mrs. cathy got from her friend. at the beginning of december, we had a christmas party with christopher's work at the very lovely westin poinsett. these are some friends that we actually know through church, lori & brandon, but the husband also works at ge. this month we also had a christmas party with our sunday school class. the boys didn't want a picture, but here is one of the girls: and finally, last weekend we did christmas with the golden side of the family. here is a picture of us: christopher, his two brothers, and his parents. kevin, his middle brother, just got engaged this month and this is his fiancee, andra! i have always wanted a sister!

catching up...

over two months since we last blogged - we are officially busy (and bad bloggers)!

so i'm going to do a photo medley post to catch you up on what we've been up to since the last post:

oct. 17: saturday night win over virginia tech preceeded by awesome tailgate. even the goal posts "got down" ;)

oct. 31: katy dressed up as daphne from scooby doo for halloween. i was busy in nashville at the tech game against vandy.

nov. 26: thanksgiving with the rimes family in alma. my 2nd cousins loved sitting in the big recliner with katy and eva!

nov. 28: tech-uga game. 35 folks plus 30+ pounds of fried turkey made for an awesome tailgate that turned out to be better than the game. sorry no pictures, our camera batteries died. if anyone has anything to say, my response is i hope you have fun at the independence bowl ;)

dec. 5: acc championship game vs. clemson with tilman in tampa, fl. jackets won 39-34, and we're going to the orange bowl!

dec. 11: sunday school christmas party at the hartsells' house. here's a picture of the wives because they look better than the husbands.

that's about it for now. katy and i are both off this week and looking forward to visiting family and friends in augusta and elsewhere. we wish each of you a very merry christmas and happy new year!

early new year's resolution: blog a little more in 2010.

surviving thanksgiving

this is a tad delayed, mostly because i'm better at living than blogging...

chris and i survived our first thanksgiving together! i had been apprehensive about this holiday because i thought it would mean choosing one side of the family or the other to spend the break with...as it worked out, our families celebrated the holiday in the same town this year (and by same town, i mean four-tenths of a mile down the street from each other!). we ended up having a large meal with chris' family on thanksgiving day. i got to help my new mother-in-law in the kitchen and was given the special duty of mixing the ingredients for dressing. clearly, the best way to mix dressing is with your bare hands!


after the traditional spread, we settled in for an afternoon of...guitar hero! one of chris' brothers, kevin, had brought his xbox 360 home with him, and demonstrated his inner rock star. i'd heard of the game before and couldn't resist the urge to test out my memory for the guitar lessons i took a few semesters back. in truth, the video game (complete with plastic guitar and flipswitch-like strumming feature) is nothing like playing a musical instrument except slightly in rhythmic aspects. my highest score was less than chris' lowest score...guess we know who the performer (or gamer) of the family is!

happy thanksgiving!

the best thing about thanksgiving is not a short work week. i mean, that's pretty awesome, but the best thing about thanksgiving is seeing family. this year, we're having thanksgiving in augusta. there are rumors that i'm going to have to take on two turkeys in one day - and i still maintain that katy is trying to get me fat.

we had planned to visit my grandparents, but plans change - so we're doing thanksgiving on thursday with my folks, and thursday or friday with katy's. it'll be a good time with both of my brothers home and not a whole lot to do but relax. we usually visit my mom's side for thanksgiving. that means 20-30 people with nothing to do but eat, talk, and sleep. there will only be 6 of us this week, but there will still be plenty of eating, talking, and sleeping.

anyway, this has been a really good year, and there are so many things for me to be thankful for. i hope god has blessed you this year in the same way that he has katy and me.

so we'll be back friday night to prepare for some clean old-fashioned hate on saturday (thwg!!). we'll see how that goes, but we're looking forward to a great week and weekend.

happy thanksgiving everyone!!!